Update on Michelle (Gertie’s Daughter)

We received a note from Dani, the person who adopted Gertie’s daughter Michelle. Michelle was born in our house in mid February. Isn’t she cute? Dani was kind enough to allow me to post her photos for everyone to see and to include her note:

Hi Tom and Harriet!
We just got back from her vet check-up today. She is 19 lbs now! Tripled in size from the 6 weeks since we got her. She is learning pretty quickly, we have her almost completely house trained other than the few accidents now and then. She is too smart for her own good though. On days Jeff and I will be away from home more than 8 hours, we were gating her into a hard floor area so she could play and romp around and then would have a dog walker come, but she climbed the gate. We got her a gate that was a foot taller than the previous, and with no surprise she climbed that too. We locked her in the laundry room and she scratched a ditch into the door On top of all of that, she learned how to get out of her crate, so we had to get her a larger crate we call puppy Alcatraz that she has been doing much better in. Our neighbors have two dogs that she loves playing with, she loves it so much she found a small gap in the ground and the gate that she squeezed under one day when I let her out, and we found her on the other side playing with the other dogs. She's very friendly and playful, and a cuddler when she tires out. I do wonder how her brothers and sisters are doing though, I am curious as to how big they are. Attached are some pictures we took right before we went to Mexico! Hope everything is going well with you and your doggies!

It’s really nice to hear about our foster pups and see what they look like when they grow up. Dani has promised to send more pictures in the future and I will post them here when they come in.

Here’s what Michelle looked like about a minute after she was born.

Gertie’s Pups Make Art For Charity

With the help of our friend, accomplished artist, and CCHS web mistress, Barbara, Gertie’s pups found their inner artist this weekend. With a little coaching from Barbara and Harriett, each pup was able to channel their creative energy and create beautiful works of art. I’ll tell you below how you can own a piece of puppy art for yourself.

The process begins with Barbara preparing the paper with a wash of color which will serve as the background for the picture. Then Harriett carefully coats the puppy’s feet with non-toxic, water washable paint. 

A different number of feet can be loaded with paint depending on the effect the artists are trying to achieve. By loading the paint on their paw pads the puppies can create using the impasto technique. Loading between the pads allows them to create a more wispy, ethereal feel by using the hair between their toes as a brush.

Furthermore, variations such as slow walking, running, turning, or even scratching allows the artist to vary the effect of the paint.
With a little assistance, the artist can use a stamping technique for precise placement of color.
And the more ambitious artist can use other parts of the body to create “dry brush” effects.

	The result of the session were five large paintings. With careful cropping and cutting, each of these large pieces can be used to create many smaller works such as this beautiful 5x7 piece.

Best of all, you can own some of this beautiful, unique art to display in your own home or office. These puppy-created pieces make great gifts for your puppy-loving friends.

Gertie’s puppies have asked us to send a matted 5x7 painting to everyone who donates $25 or more to Team DaisyPups as part of the Champaign County Humane Society MuttStrut fundraiser. Team DaisyPups was formed by the owners of Daisy and her puppies, the first litter we featured on PuppyCam. They understand the benefits of getting a healthy, well socialized puppy and want to be sure CCHS has the resources they need to continue their work. CCHS makes a huge commitment to the animals that go into foster care, many of which have expensive medical or other special needs.

Your donation of at least $25 in honor of Team DaisyPups will help CCHS provide the best care they can for the animals. In return, we’ll send you our choice of a matted 5x7 piece of a beautiful, unique painting you can be proud to display. It’s a Win-Win situation! Just click here to go to Team DaisyPups Firstgiving page.

One Week To Go

Gertie’s puppies are seven weeks old and will be with us for one more week. Sometime next week we’ll be taking them back to the Champaign County Humane Society. The exact date has not been set, but I will post a notice here when we know when they will be available for adoption. If you are interested in adopting one of these puppies go out to the Shelter and fill out an application.

Gertie’s available for adoption, too, though she will be with us for a few more weeks. She’s a really good dog--housebroken, friendly, gets along well with other dogs, and generally easy to live with. Gertie, a Brussels Griffon mix, weighs about 12 pounds. If you’re interested in Gertie the adoption staff at CCHS can arrange for you to visit with her.

Teslin (m) Potential Adoption
Martha (f) Potential Adoption
Gus (m)
Barbara (f)
Michelle (f)

 

Weekend Visits

The pups have had a big weekend. On Saturday they had a visit from long-time PuppyCam viewer Nancy (aka CindyPup) and her husband, Gus. Nancy brought the basket you see in the picture above and was hoping we could get a picture of the pups in the basket. You can see a video of the entire visit on ustream.

On Sunday morning the pups were visited by fellow foster parent Kim, her husband, Tom, and their two kids, Ava and Owen. They’re the family that took in three of the Pointer pups a couple of months ago when we took in Gertie. The kids are very dog savvy and you can see they had a great time with the pups. Thanks to their visit we know that Gertie and the pups are ok with small children.

Puppy Update, Week 5

The pups are five weeks old and over the last two weeks we’ve had some really major changes!

The puppies do not have all of their teeth yet, so they’re not ready to eat dry food, but as you can see in the photo above we no longer have to mash the soaked kibble with a blender. Although the puppies will try to nurse whenever Gertie gets close enough, at this stage they no longer depend on her for nutrition. This is a major benchmark. Gertie can begin the slow process of stopping her milk production and drying up so she can be spayed before adoption.

The other area in which we have had interesting changed is play style. The pups are now fully engaged in wrestling and playing “mouth games” in which they grab each other with their mouths. This is an important developmental step because this is how the puppies learn bite inhibition. If you watch the PuppyCam or check the ustream recordings, you will see that they engage in that type of play whenever they are awake. Watch closely and you will notice that they pups continuously switch roles as being “top” or “bottom” during these wrestling matches.

If you watch the pups in action you’ll see some quick play bows. That’s a recent development along with the interest in playing with toys.

We’ll have these puppies for about three more weeks, then they will go back to the Champaign County Humane Society and be available for adoption. If you’re interested in adopting one of these puppies please go to the Shelter and fill out a Match-A-Pet form to declare your interest.

Teslin (m)
Martha (f)
Gus (m)
Barbara (f)
Michelle (f)

The Champaign County Humane Society is always in need of foster homes. Without foster homes, litters like this one would have very little chance of survival. Foster homes take care of dogs, puppies, cats, and kittens for a variety of reasons. It’s a very rewarding activity. You can find more information about fostering on CCHS’s website or you can contact Laura Davis, the CCHS Volunteer Coordinator, for more information.

Weaning

Weaning the puppies off their mother is a little more than just dumping out some dry kibble and expecting the pups to eat it. The pups vary on when they’re willing to start eating solid food. Generally speaking, sometime between weeks three and four they will be ready. Occasionally there’s a special case, like big pups without a mom, that we try to entice earlier.

We ultimately want the pups to eat dry kibble because that’s what the majority of owners will feed. Gertie’s pups are only three weeks old and don’t have teeth so we have to offer them food they don’t have to chew.  To start out we use a 50/50 mixture (by volume) of Esbilac® milk replacer and dry food. The dry food gets soaked in the milk replacer until it is completely soft, then it’s pulverized with a stick blender to make a creamy gruel. There are special weaning foods available, but we don’t find any advantage in using them. We always use Esbilac® brand milk replacer because the pups never seem to have a problem with it. The dry food is Science Diet® Small Bites because that's what the pups will eat when they go back to the Shelter.

The gruel is warmed to between 90°F and 100°F to come close to mom's body temperature. We start out feeding each pup separately on a paper plate. Not all of the puppies are always ready to be weaned at the same time. If one’s not ready we just try again at the next feeding. Once they are all eating gruel we slowly alter the blend to 100% kibble, but we soak it in a little hot water instead of milk replacer. Then we reduce the amount of water until they are eating dry kibble. The whole process takes about a week and a half.

Although they will be eating solid food the pups will still want to nurse. But the demand will be less on Gertie so she will produce less milk and be able to gain some weight. The process of drying her out can begin and that’s critical because she can’t be spayed or go up for adoption until she’s no longer producing milk.

Teslin

Martha

Gus

Barbara

Michelle